Workman&#39;s time-recorder.



APPLICATION FILED FEB. l, 1915.

Patented Apr. 3, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

T. ROSS.

WORKMANS TIME RECORDER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. I. 1915.

1,22 1,600. Patented Apr. 3, 1917..

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TOREY ROSS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

WoRKMANs 'UME-RECORDER.

Application filed February l, 1915.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, Tonny Ross, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of the city of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Workmens Time-Recorders, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to workmens time recorders and has for its object improvements in such devices.

In recorders of this class, a clock mechanism drives a series of wheels having numbers to represent hours and minutes. It also drives an a. m. and p. m. shift to distinguish between similar times at different times of the day. It also drives a daily shift to show the different days of the week upon which times are recorded. These various things are variously adjustable, and an adjustment of all of them to a particular hour and minute on a particular day in the week requires considerable knowledge of the construction and operation of the apparatus, If, for any reason, the clock should stop, particularly if it should stop for more than a day, the intricacy of the adjustments required usually make it necessary to send for an expert to reset the apparatus. A frequent cause for the stoppage of recorders of this character is a failure to wind the clock at the proper time or to the proper extent. The primary object of the present invention is to provide suitable means by which each workman when he manipulates the apparatus to record his time, will, by the act of manipulating it, partially wind the clock. By dividing the total amount of winding required by the minimum number of workmen likely to use the clock, it may be kept wound at all times, and by providing safety devices to prevent olverwinding there will be no danger of injury to the apparatus when more than the minimum number of men use it.

In the accompanying drawings Figure l is an elevation, partly in section, of so much of the operating portions of a recorder as are necessary to illustrate my invention in its relationship to the clock and the printing mechanism;

Fig. 2 is a plan of the same;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal section of the winding shaft; and

Eig. 4 is a detail.

Supported in the casing 10 is a main shaft l1 to which is secured the hand lever l12 Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 3, 1917. serial No. 5,405.

which the workman operates whenever he desires to record his time upon his card 13 which he inserts in the apparatus in the ordinary manner. Loosely mounted upon the shaft 11 are a gear 14 and a ratchet wheel l5, while secured to the shaft is an arm 16 which carries a pawl 17 arranged to engage the teeth of the ratchet wheel l5 to turn it and the gear 14 whenever the lever 12 is depressed.

The spring 18 (Fig. 4) which acts to hold the pawl 17 in contact with the ratchet 15, is inclosed in a protecting tubular case 19 secured to the arm 16. The pawl spindle 20 has a bearing in the case, and the spring 1.8 is interposed between the case andl the spindle. The holding pawl 21 may have, and preferably does have, its spring protected in the same way.

The gear 14 meshes with a gear 22 which is secured to a shaft 23 by a pin 24 running through a slot 25 in the hub of the gear 22. The gear 22 has a flange 26 arranged to come into frictional contact with a fiange 27 on a gear 28, the gear 28 being loose onthe shaft 23. A collar 29 secured to the shaft 23 by a pin 30 serves to prevent vend movement of the gear 28 under pressure applied to its flange 27.

A- spring 31 on the shaft 23 is inclosed by a sleeve 32, and entering this sleeve is a nut 33 arranged to compress the spring 31 when the nut 33 is adjusted on the shaft 23. A lock nut 34 serves to hold the adjustment of the nut These parts are so arranged that the action of the spring 3l is to force the flange 26 against the iange 27 with any desired degree of pressune to make a friction drive between the gears 22 and 28. It will be evident that if one of these gears is positively driven and the other positively held, there will be slippage between the flanges 26 and 27, and that there will be actual driving of the second gear only when it is held by some predetermined resistance.

From gear 28 power is communicated through a trainvof gearing to a large gear 35 on shaft 36. Shaft 36 carries one end of the motive spring contained in the spring case 43, the other end of the spring being connected to themain drive gear 44.

From the gear 44 power is conveyed through a train of gearing to a horizontal shaft 37 carrying a bevel gear 38. The gear 38 meshes with a similar bevel gear 39 on the vertical shaft 40, and this in turn is at the printing point.

connected through the shaft 41 to the clock mechanism which is partly shown at 42 in Fig. 1.

@n one end of a horizontal shaft 45 is a relatively small bevel gear 46 which engages one of the bevel gears 38 or 39 but not the other. By making the gear 46 slightly smaller in diameter than the gears 38 and 39, and by giving it a narrower face, the drive for shaft 45 will be suciently smooth without making the pitch line of gear 46 coincide accurately with that of the gear which it engages.

At the other end of shaft 45 there are suitable gear connections for driving the type wheels 47 on shaft 48. As the clock 42 is connected by gearing to the type wheels 47 it will be evident that the clock controls the presentation of particular type faces This part of the mechanism is that used in ordinary time recorders and needs no particular description.

llt is to be observed by the foregoing description that l have placed the motive spring adjacent to the recording mechanism and not adjacent to the clock mechanism, and that the shaft conveying power to the clock is located far to the rear. Also, that from this shaft, another shaft extends forf ward to the recording devices. BY this al rangement the connections between the recording devices and the clock which controls them is located back of where the pendulum would come, and not in front of the pendulum as is the present construction.

Secured on a shaft 49 at the front of the machine is an arm 50 having a lip 51, and loosely mounted on the shaft 50 is a second arm 52 normally held against the lip 51 by a spring 53 carried by a lug on the arm 50.

The arm 52 extends upward to a point opposite the printing point of the type wheels 47 and carries on its end a hammer 54 adapted to strike the back of the card 13 when said card is interposed between the hammer and the type wheels.

Secured on the shaft 11 is an arm 55 to the outer end of which is pivoted a thrust rod 56 having its free end resting upon a pin 57 secured in the frame of the apparatus. Just beyond the pin 57, the thrust rod 56 has a shoulder 58 adapted to engage the end of an arm 59. secured on the shaft 49. l/Vhen a workman operates the lever 12 to turn the shaft 11 in its bearings, the thrust rod 56 pushes on the end of the arm 59 to turn the shaft 49, and thus to move the hammer 54 away from the type wheels 47.

On the under face of the thrust rod 56 is a cam surface adapted to engage the pin 57 and lift the outer end of the thrust rod so that the shoulder 58 will slip from the end of the arm 59 after a predetermined movement of the shaft 11 has given a corresponding outward movement to the hammer 54.

to return the shaft 11 and arm 12 to their normal position'. A stop 62 serves to limit the inward movement of the arm 59, and a similar stop conveniently arranged will serve to limit the return movement of the .shaft 11.

As previously described, the arm 16 is 1 also secured to the shaft 11 and carries a pawl 17 which engages ratchet wheel 15 to advance said wheel one tooth each time the lever 12 is depressed to operate the hammer 54. advances the gear 14, and as this gear is connected in the manner described with the windingvgear ou the stein of the main spring in the case 43, it will be evident that a depression of the lever 12 to mark a card also results in slightly winding the motive spring which operates the clock and thc type wheels 4. lf more worlnnen use the apparatus than are sutlicient to keep the main spring wound, then the friction disks 26 and 27 serve as a slipping connection or safety device to prevent overwinding. lf the number of nien using the apparatus is insufficient to keep the main spring wound, then further winding may be done by hand in the ordinary way by applying a key or crank to the squared end 63 on the end of the shaft 23.

The cam surface 60 is preferably related to the spacing of the teeth of the ratchet wheel 15 so that the shoulder 58 will slip from the end of the lever or arm 59 at substantially the same instant that the advance of the pawl 17 has moved the ratchet wheel forward the space of one tooth. Stops 64 on the side of the case 10, or at any other convenient point, serve to limit the movement of the hand lever 12 to that which is necessary to operate the hammer and advance the ratchet wheel one tooth.

Vilhat I claim is:

1. ln a timeV recorder, the combination with type wheels, a motive spring for driving them, and a hand lever for causing prints to be made by the type wheels, of a shaft, a friction drive mounted upon the shaft and consisting of two disks having their faces in frictional contact with each other, connections froni the hand lever to one disk for driving it, and connections from the other disk to the spring for winding it.

2. In a time recorder, the combination with type wheels, a motive spring for moving them, and a hand lever for causing prints to be made by the type wheels, of a friction drive consisting of two members in frictional contact with each other, devices for adjusting the degree of frictional contact between said members, connections from the hand lever to one member for driving it,

The advance of the ratchet wheel also and other connections from the other member to the spring for winding it.

3. In a time recorder, a shaft, two friction members mounted upon the shaft, a spring acting to hold said members in contact with each other, means for adjusting the tension of said spring, manually operated connections for turning one of said members, a motive spring for the recorder, and connections from the other of said members to the motive spring for winding it.

-'l-. In a time recorder, the combination with type wheels, a motive spring for driving them, and a hand lever for causing prints to be made by the type wheels, of a friction drive consisting of tw'o members, connections from the hand lever to one member for driving it, means by which said member may he driven independently of said hand lever, and other connections from the other member to the motive fspring for winding it.

In a time recorder, the combination with type wheels, a motive spring for driving` them, and a hand lever for causing prints to be made by said type wheels, of a shaft, two gears mounted upon said shaft, a spring' serving to hold said gears in frictional Contact with each so that power may be conveyed from one gear to the other, con- Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the nections from the hand lever to one of said gears for driving it, and other connections from the other gear to the motive spring for winding it.

6. The combination with registering devices, a motive spring therefor, and a hand lever for causing a printing by the registering devices, of a shaft by the turning of which the spring is wound, a ratchet operated by the movement of the hand lever, friction devices for conveying power from the ratchet to the shaft, and means for adjusting the amount of friction in said devices.

7. The combination with registering devices, and a hammer coperating with said devices, of a hand lever, a thrust rod moved by the lever and acting to move the hammer, and a spring acting from one end to return the hammer to its normal position and from the other end to return the thrust rod to its normal position after said parts have been moved by the action of said lever.

Signed at Chicago, Ill., this 30th day of January, 1915.

TOREY ROSS. litnesses C. L. REDFIELD, JAMES C. REDFIELD.

Commissioner ot Patents,

Washington, D. C." 

